Hideaway
by kobalto
Summary: Before knowing Bruce's secret, Dick grew lonely in his big, empty and silent manor. He copes by finding a hideaway, a spot all to himself.


The manor feels empty when Bruce isn't home. Almost like it's waiting for him to get home and until he is, the house is sad and cold. Alfred tells him that it's just his imagination, but Dick doesn't think so. It feels wrong to make noise in his room, as if he's breaking something that should never be touched. To make up for this silence, he goes exploring outside in the manor's extensive gardens, where the noise from Gotham floats in and makes enough noise to break the silence.

It is when Alfred starts to pick up on his likes and dislikes- a little _too_ soon for Dick's liking- that he finds the spot.

It's slightly away from the garden path, like it doesn't want to be found by just _anyone_. Dick found it because he brought a flashlight when it started to get dark. It was under a large oak tree, the roots twisted and gnarled as it covered the opening. The area behind it was empty, as if the soil had just up and left, leaving a gap where the outside world just didn't exist. Dick crawled through the roots, shining the light wherever he thought there would be danger and eventually made it inside.

It was surprisingly roomy under the tree. The soil wasn't too hard and wasn't too soft, the bark above him was giving off an earthly smell and he could hear _noise_ for once since coming to Bruce's. The tree apparently had several squirrels living in it and they seemed to be fighting given the noises and screeches they were giving off.

Taking a moment to keep this place in mind, Dick scurried back through the roots and onto the garden path just in time to hear Alfred calling his name. Marking the tree on the map in his head, Dick took off. Maybe he could bring a book next time to read... with food, then it'd be a picnic! With the plan in mind for tomorrow, he let Alfred's gentle nagging about dirt on his clothes slide easily.

He's spending more and more time in his spot as time goes on. Bruce is leaving at night more and more while he's not making more friends at school as he hoped. But he's been getting over it as the weeks drag on, all thanks to his new found spot. He thinks that Alfred might know, but Dick doesn't care so long as he doesn't make him stop coming here.

But his luck doesn't last. Winter comes to Gotham in the form of the biggest storm in the whole world it seems. All schools are now closed, villains are indoors and quiet for once and Dick's spot is now filled with snow. He goes back to sulking in his room, waiting for the snow to leave when Bruce comes in on one of his rare nights home.

"I know you go to that spot." He said simply. Dick didn't know if it was against Bruce's house rules to go hiding in one of the manor's trees, so he started to blurt out ann apology when Bruce stopped him.

"It's okay. I'm not mad at you for hiding in it. The house can be _too_ quiet at times." He gives a short laugh at it before continuing. "How'd you like to help me out with something? I've been wanting a little guy like you for some time now." Dick's face brightens up at this and he nods eagerly. Anything to get away from this quiet house again.

Bruce takes Dick to his basement and this time, Dick doesn't care that it's too quiet or it's too dark, he feels better.

Winter leaves and Spring comes up to rear its beautiful heads of flowers, trees, grasses and animals come back out of their slumber. But Robin didn't care about his spot as much as he used to. Things were _loud_ again and he simply forgot about it. The spot moved to the back of his mind; he rarely visited the place anymore. Things were better.

He invited Wally over for a secret sleepover once. Bruce would be out for a while on one of his rare business trips and Dick had the empty house to himself (Alfred didn't count as a person, he was a part of the house). Wally was practically in love with the manor, running up and down hallways, down and up the stairs and through rooms. Dick blamed the cookies that Alfred baked before hand.

Wally stopped at the garden, content to walk through and enjoy it rather than run and miss it. Dick was beside him, telling him about the plants and where this one came from and what that one was cross-breeded from. They came to the end of the garden steps eventually and Dick caught himself. Something was telling him to look around for a second.

Using this silence, Wally stopped and looked too, his eyes catching on gnarled and twisted tree roots. He didn't give a second thought before he started to crawl through the roots and into the clearing. The brunette followed after him after Wally's surprised yelling of how big this tree hole was and how stinky it was. Eventually, Dick managed to crawl through and was crushed beside his friend.

"I used to come here when I was little." He blurted suddenly. Wally looked at him, attempting to move so that he was elbowing the dirt wall and not his friend.

"I can see that! Look, you left all this stuff here! Old candy bars, plates and a book." He held up each of these in front of Dick's face, proofing himself. The smallest boy stared at these before laughing.

"I didn't know it was this small. I actually outgrew something for once, KF!" For the first time, the tree hollow was filled with the sound of laughter and the silence in the manor suddenly didn't seem so bad for Robin.

-End-

I've never written for YJ or anything of the sort before, so please let me know of general OOC-ness/general mistakes. I put this on the anon meme a while back, but I enjoyed it enough to put it on here too /laugh


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